Jews should study Islam, not hate it

It is not Hamas’ rockets which we should fear, but politicians and intellectuals with an Islamic agenda.

Rafael Castro, 19/11/18 23:42 | updated: 23:36

Rafael Castro

INN:RF

Rafael Castro

Rafael Castro is a Yale and Hebrew University educated business and political analyst based in Europe. Rafael specializes in proofreading, editing and ghostwriting quality texts for entrepreneurs and politicians. Rafael can be reached at rafaelcastro78@gmail.com

We should be concerned about growing Jewish hatred of Islam on social media networks. To fear Islam's spread is reasonable, hating Islam is not. Hatred is an emotion tinged with envy . What reasons could Jews have to envy Islam?

Jews in the world are outnumbered 120 to 1 by Muslims, but this hasn’t stopped Jewish Nobel Prize winners from outnumbering Muslims 17 to 1. Admittedly, mosques are often more beautiful than synagogues. However, the Jewish religion is cemented by reason and walls of wisdom. Judaism is a religion whose depth and intelligence conquers souls. It never needed to dazzle the eye in order to endure.

Should Jews admire and emulate the jihadist ethos which Islam prizes? Judaism loves life and reviles bloodshed. This is not weakness or cowardice as anti-Semites assert. It is living proof of Judaism’s commitment to healing and perfecting the world, instead of disdaining and demolishing it.

Should Jews envy the fact that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation has 57 member states with a population of over 1.8 billion people? Perhaps yes, since these 57 states routinely rout the solitary Jewish State at the United Nations. But how many Jews would trade the achievements and values of Israel for those of Gambia, Sudan or Pakistan?

It thus appears there are no good reasons for Jews to envy Islam and hate it as a result. On the contrary, there are excellent reasons not to hate Islam. The first reason is that hatred is an un-Jewish sentiment. Jews have survived throughout history by prizing reason over emotions. Reason gives Jews the capacity to shape the world of ideas. Historically, good ideas are mightier than armies. That is the reason Judaism has withstood the test of time, whereas so many of its enemies have not.

Jews should therefore study Islam in order to understand that its enmity towards Judaism transcends the boundaries of Israel and Jerusalem. Jewish self-determination in Zion discredits Islamic supremacy. This is the root of the conflict between Jews and Muslims.

Progressive Jews seek solace in the belief that anti-Zionism does not necessitate anti-Semitism. Reality is far more prosaic: Since most Jews are Zionists and the most committed Zionists are Jews, only particularly blind and stupid anti-Zionists are at heart not anti-Semites.

Hatred of Islam should be left to those who do have reasons to envy Islam: To effete Europeans who try to make amends for the Holocaust by welcoming millions of anti-Semitic immigrants; to aging and childless nations pushed into the dustbin of history by more fertile populations from North Africa and the Middle East; to Christians and Hindus who see their churches and temples increasingly empty as new generations embrace secularism and even Islam in disbelief of the myths dear to their forefathers.

It is hard not to hate a peace-loving enemy that always wins wars you fought so enthusiastically. It is nigh impossible to concede that the values and ethics of the enemy are superior.An additional reason not to hate Islam is that it makes Jews similar to Muslims. Muslims hate Jews and Israel out of all proportion to Jewish misdeeds, both alleged and real. The reason is simple: If Muslims ceased to hate Jews they would eventually come to the conclusion that in order to flourish they need to embrace doubt and self-criticism, blame themselves instead of others for their misfortunes, let people whose ideas they revile live and speak freely… In other words, they would need to embrace Jewish ethics and Jewish values.

It is hard not to hate a peace-loving enemy that always wins wars you fought so enthusiastically. It is nigh impossible to concede that the values and ethics of the enemy are superior. Nevertheless, some Muslims have understood that Jews cannot be defeated in the battlefield. These are the most dangerous enemies of the Jewish people.

It is not Hamas’ rockets which we should fear, but politicians and intellectuals with an Islamic agenda. Unless a Muslim figure has a consistent and unequivocal track-record of combatting political Islam and advocating freedom and respect for human rights in the Muslim World, the odds of that person being a closet anti-Semite are extremely high.

The hypocrisy, double discourse and guile of the Ayatollahs, Linda Sarsour and Ilhan Omar are the biggest threat to contemporary Jews. In order to understand the adversary we face, Jews should diligently study the history and ethics of Islam. This knowledge would make it evident that fashionable buzzwords such as "Islamic human rights", "Islamic feminism" and "Islamic pacifism" are devoid of substance and that Islam is fundamentally hostile to our most prized values.

This knowledge is a more promising and more Jewish path to victory than hatred. We should pursue this knowledge in order to bequeath to our children a world with more light and less ignorance.